


Les B. Ian

by ooopo123



Category: Original Work
Genre: Abuse, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, F/F, Free Verse, Poetry, Verse Novella
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-07
Updated: 2018-12-07
Packaged: 2019-09-13 10:28:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 924
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16890855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ooopo123/pseuds/ooopo123
Summary: “C’mon! We’re wasting daylight!”Did I have an option in the first place?Probably not.





	Les B. Ian

**Layer 1: Liquid Eye-liner**

Dollar-store mascara wasn't good for much;  
It was only honesty.  
But every Friday,  
After school,  
Saw Lesley headed off home  
Never skipping her pit stop  
Of the store next to the saloon.  
There she bought lip-stick and eyeliner;  
All those products with a point.  
Knowing they’d never make it  
Even close to her eyes.  


Kiayla sat on her door step;  
why else than to wait for Les.  
Her best friend.  
Her something more.  
Really, wasn't it all the same?  
Red-headed Kia saw Les  
as she ambled closer down,  
so she tossed her half finished beer  
underneath the rose bush  
where a collection slowly grew.  


“Les! Babe, where’ve you been?”  
Babe? That’s new.  
“I’ve been waiting for aaages!”  
Really, I think it’s been five minutes.  
“C’mon! We’re wasting daylight!”  
Did I have an option in the first place?  


Probably not.  


-_-_-_-_- 

**Layer 2: Bronze Coloured Blush**

Lesley watched her love  
search her bag  
like airport security;  
Through and unyielding  
in approach and personality.  


“Found it!”  
She pulled out the bronze blush,  
Only bought an hour ago;  
Yet inevitably gone by night.  
It was metallic in the same way as  
Kiayla favourite brand’s cans  
of which she’s never seen without.  


An empty space in her fist  
When there’s always something there.   


“I knew you’d be thinking of me.”  
Les closed her eyes  
As Kia purred in her ear.  
All the words she fears to hear.  
Unable to speak her own  
as Kiayla’s lips bar her voice  
from leaving her throat.  


“God, you’re gorgeous Les.”  


She says that every time;  
Yet snickers in the hall  
behind her girlfriend’s back.  
When Les trips in midair  
scrambling to gather her things.  
How ungraceful.  


“I love you.”  


How very gullible.  


-_-_-_-_- 

**Layer 3: Water Proof Make-up**

“You fall too easily.”  
She already knew.  
Don’t need to tell her  
over and over and over again.  
One for every time she trips:  
Over her laces;  
Over her tongue;  
Over the love that lets her down  
Every single time.  


“Look at me Les.”  
“Look at me, please.”  


Watering eyes met her friend’s  
An inkwell of affection  
In trying times.  
“You’ve got to break up with her, Les.  
She’s going to kill you at this rate.”  


“I can’t. You know that.”  


“Why!”  
“Why can’t you!  
She’s poisonous, can’t you see!”  
A shaking thumb rubbed away  
The lone inky trail left  
In the tear’s wake.  


“Mink…”  


She shook her head.  
“If you love me, Les.  
You’ll leave her.”  


“For you?”  
“... Anything.”  


-_-_-_-_- 

**Layer 4: Bottled Perfume**

Every last Huddleston brew bottle  
from under the bush out front  
and the cupboards next to the fridge  
were gone.  


Kiayla didn’t like that.  
Not one bit.  


“Where the fuck did they go!”  


“Mum was getting suspicious.”  


“So?! Where’d you put them!”  


“Where she couldn’t find them.”  


“You bitch! They’re in the fucking trash   
aren’t they?!”  
She ran out,   
leaving Les in shock  
before following suit  
as she always does.  


Dumpster diving  
in the local garbage  
wasn’t the prettiest  
Kiayla’s ever looked.  
It was certainly the most passionate.  
and all over a dozen cans of alcohol…  


“Where are they! Where! Where! Where!  
Augh!”  
Kiayla screeched a harpy cry;  
She’d always been an angry one.  


Soon enough the trash was blown  
Half down the street and  
Half in her mother’s garden;  
Not a trace of Huddleston  
To be found.   


Kiayla didn’t like that.  
Not one bit.  


-_-_-_-_- 

**Layer 5: Mascara**

Abuse looked like bruises.  
Scabs and busted lips.  
Nary a dry eye nor steady gaze,  
not a hint.  
That’s what most thought  
… That wasn't always the case.  


Lesley was hardened to all  
All but two.  
Her first molded her  
Putting her within the kiln;  
Her second fired her  
Without a glaze.  
A mistake.  


Her first took her face  
in her gentle hands;  
kiss planted down  
on Lesley’s head.  


So different from last night.  
A present from her second.  


“I’m sorry.”  
Mink whispered  
a docile thing  
compared to the predator  
that is Kiayla’s every syllable.  


“I didn’t think she’d…”  
Les could remember the blow up;  
The fallout;  
The make-up.  
How Kiayla  
(Loving caring Kia)  
Stayed the night  
To apply Lesley’s mascara  
That morning.  


Her ears still seemed to ring  
With the force of Kiayla’s shouts.  
She was always such  
An angry thing.  


-_-_-_-_- 

**Layer 6: Hair Brushes**

“Heeey hun!”  
Kiayla waved  
Hands above her head  
More aggressive than any surrender.  


“I thought we could hit up Gigi’s,  
ya’know?  
Since she owes me a favour and all.”  
The purr was back  
a lion’s purr;  
while still a purr  
only a decibel short of a growl.  


“Not to worry love,   
I forgive you for the incident yesterday.”  
As if trying to rid myself of you  
Was something I needed forgiveness for.  


“Henry got me some more,  
Don’t you wanna try it?”  
“It’s good~!”  
Lion turned to snake;  
A hissed suggestion.  
A proposition.  


Lesley set her hand firm  
On Kiayla’s chest  
Keeping her lips away  
From their favourite place  
Silencing her own.  


. . . “We need to talk, Kia.”  


-_-_-_-_- 

**Layer 7: Matching Wings**

Words were said;  
regrets were met,  
and Lesley walked home single.  


Mink sat on her doorstep  
jumping up to greet her  
when she saw Les  
coming ever closer  
from down the road.  


A startling form of deja vu.  


“Lesley!”  
“How’d it go…?”  


“We decided we’re  
better off separate.”  


“That’s great!  
I mean, uh.”  
Now it was Mink’s turn  
to feel her toes  
catch on words  
and send her sprawling.  


Lesley watched this perfect girl  
who’d stuck  
by her  
through thick and thin.  


Truly, Lesley fell  
much too easily.  


**Author's Note:**

> A verse novella I wrote a little while back, have been really wanting to share it!


End file.
